63+ Stupefying Sales and Marketing Alignment Stats

What is sales and marketing alignment?

To answer this question, imagine your business as a wagon pulled by two horses.

Let’s name one of the horses “Marketing” and the other one “Sales.”

For the wagon to move, both Marketing and Sales have to go together in the right direction.

And that’s what alignment is – both teams working together in coordination.

Two horses, pulling a cart, representing sales and marketing teams alignment.Now:

The following list of sales and marketing alignment stats is here to help you understand why alignment matters. Moreover, you’ll see the impact it could have on your company.

So, without further ado, let’s jump right in.

Astonishing Sales and Marketing Alignment Stats

• Companies with aligned marketing and sales teams are 67% more efficient at closing deals.
• Aligning both teams could lead to 209% more revenue from marketing.
• Organizations with aligned departments can achieve up to 38% higher sales win rates.
• According to marketing stats, sales representatives ignore half of all marketing leads.
• Marketing and sales alignment leads to 36% higher customer retention.
• B2B statistics show 60%-70% of all created marketing content remains unused.
• Misalignment between marketing and sales teams costs companies an average of 10% of revenue per year.

Those are some intriguing figures, right?

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Let’s see what lies underneath.

1. General sales and marketing alignment statistics – only 12% of customers want to meet a sales rep in person.

(Source: Accenture)

• According to sales statistics, businesses that respond first get 35-50% of sales.
• 95% of shoppers choose a company that provides them with content through every step of their buyer journey.
• People complete 57% of their buyer journey before they talk to a sales rep.
• B2B stats show 60%-70% of all created content remains unused.
• 57% of B2B companies cite “converting qualified leads into paying customers” as their top funnel priority.
• 71% of buyers conduct their own research and contact sales reps over the phone or chat only when needed.

People have almost made up their minds before they contact your sales department. That’s why your marketing team should charm them through every step of their buyer journey.

Furthermore, your sales reps should be fast and coordinate their efforts with marketers to achieve better results.

2. The communication between marketing and sales departments – 55% of marketers don’t know which assets are most useful for their sales colleagues.

(Source: Kapost)

• 61% of marketers send all leads to sales. Still, only 27% of those leads are qualified.
• 56% of B2B marketers verify business leads before they pass them to the sales department.
• 76% of content marketers forget about sales enablement in their marketing efforts.
• According to marketing statistics, 59% of marketers believe they know what kind of content sales teams need them to create. On the other hand, only 35% of sales reps agree with that.
• 68% of marketers believe sales teams don’t take advantage of the marketing content’s full potential.
• One-third of B2B sales and marketing teams don’t have a standing meeting.

For your business to thrive, sales and marketing should work together. There’s a huge gap between both departments, and it costs your business money, time, and potential clients.

How to fix it? – The answer is sales and marketing alignment, aka smarketing.

3. Sales and marketing alignment stats that prove beneficial for businesses – 81% of companies that beat their revenue goals are “somewhat” or “completely” aligned.

(Source: Act-On)

• Sales closing statistics show alignment helps organizations to be 67% more effective at closing deals.
• Businesses with “dynamic and adaptable sales and marketing processes” have an average of 10% more sales reps hitting their quota compared to other companies.
• According to sales and marketing alignment stats, 56% of aligned companies meet their revenue goals. Furthermore, an additional 19% manage to beat their targets.
• Businesses with aligned sales and marketing teams experience a 36% higher customer retention.
• Aligned organizations save 30% on their customer acquisition cost. Moreover, their customers have a 20% higher lifetime value.
• Gaining new customers can cost 5 times as much as keeping existing ones.
• According to sales and marketing statistics, when both teams work in coordination, businesses see a 27% faster profit growth.

Now:

What’s not to love about sales and marketing alignment?

So far there isn’t a single drawback.

When your teams work together, you generate higher revenue at a lower cost. Furthermore, your customers have a higher lifetime value.

As a plus, alignment helps closing deals faster, which is an excellent foundation for future growth.

Think of your business as a machine – its parts should work as a whole.

4. How does marketing and sales alignment affect a company’s revenue? – Aligning both teams can lead to a 209% growth in marketing revenue.

(Source: Marketo)

• Organizations with robust alignment can grow by 20% annually.
• According to sales and marketing alignment stats, when both teams work together, company revenue can increase by up to three times.
• On average, aligned companies have up to 19% faster revenue growth and a 15% increase in profits compared to non-aligned companies.
• Sale stats show the alignment of sales and marketing teams can lead to 38% higher sales win rates.
• Companies with “tightly aligned” departments reach 24% faster revenue growth and 27% quicker profit growth for three years.

Let’s face it – the end goal of every company is profit. The higher, the better.

It’s like the Olympics – everyone wants the gold medal.

Still, to get gold, your synchronized swimming team should be, after all, synchronized.

Otherwise, you are just participating without getting the medals (read: profit.)

So, get your teams working together. That way, you can achieve higher revenue, thus higher profit.

5. Why is sales and marketing alignment important? – Aligned companies can experience up to 36% growth.

(Source: SiriusDecisions)

• Marketing data shows 55.8% of sales reps and marketers align around their conversion strategy. 34.6% report alignment around asset and content development, while 31.8% do so for analytics and metrics.
• When marketers align content on specific stages of the buyer’s journey, they can achieve up to 73% higher conversion rates.
• One of the curious marketing facts is that nurtured leads close a deal 23% faster than non-nurtured ones.

Customers could easily get lost in the business jungle. That’s why your marketers should lead them by the hand through every step of the way. That technique, along with your sales reps’ skills, is the most effective way to close a deal.

Furthermore, if sales and marketing teams join forces, conversion rates will go through the roof.

6. The correlation between alignment and technology – 74% of organizations that use CRM and marketing automation have aligned marketing and sales departments.

(Source: DemandGen)

• According to sales and marketing alignment statistics, nearly half of the aligned companies use marketing analytics tools. On the other hand, only 32% of the non-aligned ones apply the same technology.
• Aligned businesses are 20% more likely to implement marketing automation than non-aligned ones.
• 46% of sales teams confirm using CRM software.
• Sales and marketing alignment stats show 42% of all aligned businesses use marketing automation.

The above statistics point to one thing – aligned companies are more adaptable to new technologies.

Once you realize the potential benefits of marketing automation and align your teams, you can expect a bright future for your business.

And since 69% of B2B buyers expect an Amazon-like buying experience, technologies and alignment are crucial for your company’s growth.

7. How could alignment affect the sales and marketing teams? – More than 30% of both departments don’t think they are closely aligned.

(Source: Kapost)

• Almost half (47%) of aligned teams achieve a moderate or significant increase in their budget.
• Aligned companies are 50% more likely to expect increased budgets than non-aligned ones.
• Companies that misaligned their marketing and sales teams have a 4% decline in revenue.
• Sales statistics show 65% of sales representatives can’t find content to send to potential clients.

Smarketing is a win-win solution. When your business earns more, marketers and sales reps get increased budgets.

The last stat shows the gap between sales and marketing departments. Such misalignment can play a low-down trick on your business. Smart is the one who invests in alignment as early as in their business plan.

8. Roadblocks to alignment adoption – only 54% of marketers are empowered to collaborate with the sales department.

(Source: Salesforce)

• Marketing statistics show 79% of all marketers’ leads never turn into sales.
• According to marketing stats, only 30% of CMOs have a clear program to create an alignment between sales and marketing.
• Sales and marketing alignment stats reveal 23% of sales teams need better leads from marketers.
• Conversationally, sales follow up statistics show 22% of marketers need better lead follow-up from sales.
• 43% of marketers and sales reps cite the lack of communication as the main barrier towards alignment. Still, that’s an improvement, considering the figure was 49% in 2016.
• Be that as it may, sale stats show sales representatives ignore 50% of all marketing leads.
• Only 8% of all companies believe they have a strong alignment between sales and marketing teams.

In theory, both teams should work together. After all, they have the same goal – to turn their skills into profit.

Unfortunately, sales and marketing alignment stats reveal the ugly truth – there’s a huge gap between these teams.

And coming up next are the consequences.

9. The effects of misalignment – one in four businesses believe their sales and marketing departments are “misaligned” or “rarely aligned.”

(Source: Precision Marketing Group)

• According to sales and marketing alignment stats, misalignment costs companies at least $1 trillion per year.
• Almost 75% of companies have some form of alignment. Still, only 17% believe they have “completely-aligned” departments.
• Executives believe their teams waste 50% of their sales effort and lead generation budget on leads that won’t be contacted.
• Misalignment of sales and marketing costs companies an average of 10% of revenue per year.
• Companies that can’t align their teams are twice more likely to report sales and marketing budget cuts.
• Only 37% of misaligned companies meet their revenue goals, and just 7% manage to beat them.

As you can see, the lack of coordination between sales and marketing teams could lead to some severe losses for your company.

Imagine the buyer journey as a chain. Both marketing and sales are responsible for links in that chain. If they don’t work together, the chain will break. The same goes for your revenue plan.

10. Success stories – by aligning their sales and marketing teams, Dell earned a 35% higher average order value for nurtured leads.

(Source: LinkedIn)

• According to sales and marketing alignment statistics, by aligning their teams correctly, HCL made $500 million worth of contracts.
• When sales and marketing started to work together, O2 managed to reach 325% of their target business. In addition, they increased their target pipeline by 313%.
• Thanks to proper alignment, Next Caller’s revenue grew by 40% for 16 consecutive months.
• By aligning their sales and marketing teams, AMX Logistics revenue skyrocketed from $200,000 to $25 million in four years.

In case all sales and marketing alignment stats so far haven’t been enough to convince you alignment is worth it – here are some of the real-life examples.

For your company to achieve such impressive results, it’s crucial that your marketing and sales teams join forces.

If you’re wondering how perhaps kanban software can aid the process.

11. The future of sales and marketing alignment – 36% of companies believe they will become laser-focused on the perfect customer.

(Source: InsideView)

• By 2020, customers will be able to manage 85% of their interaction with a company without talking to a human. And yet,
• Only 3% of people prefer chatbots. 
• 32% of companies believe AI and machine learning will fuel their decisions on the best markets.
• By 2020, B2B customers will contact a business only after they’ve completed 80% of their purchase decision.

What do the stats above tell us?

For a company to thrive, it should be aligned, customer-focused, and technology-augmented.

That’s why Amazon is so powerful – it combines both of these features.

Conclusion

If you had any doubts the alignment is worth it – cast them aside.

That’s what the whole list of sales and marketing alignment stats was about – to show you the benefits of such coordination.

Sales reps and marketers are the main drivers for your company’s growth.

Still, they could be the reason for its downfall.

That’s why you’ll achieve greater results if they work together.

“Coming together is the beginning.

Staying together is progress.

Working together is success.”

Henry Ford